Unknown by most people, Franklin surprisingly has only had 2 songs hit the #1 position on the Billboard Hot 100, "Respect" in the 1960's, and her 1980's duet with George Michael, "I Knew You Were Waiting For Me". However, many of her singles have hit Top 20, Top 10, and Top 5 positions.
As a child, Franklin and her sisters, Carolyn and Erma, sang at her father's Detroit-area church and made her first recordings at the age 14. She signed with Columbia Records after being discovered by legendary A&R man John Hammond. In the early 1960s, Franklin had a few popular songs, most notably "Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody." Though Columbia really wanted her as a jazz singer, the results never gave full rein to Franklin's talents. Her greatest and most innovative work was yet to come.
After moving to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin teamed up with producers Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin, resulting in some of the most influential R&B recordings of the 1960s, including "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", a much more soulful and impassioned song than most of her earlier work. By the late 1960s, Franklin had earned the nickname "The Queen of Soul", having become an internationally famous artist and a symbol of pride for the Black community. Franklin said herself of this period, "When I went to Atlantic, they just sat me down at the piano and the hits started coming."
She released numerous Top Ten hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s, dabbling in gospel music, blues music, pop music, psychedelic music and rock and roll, including notable covers of songs by The Beatles ("Eleanor Rigby"), The Band ("The Weight"), Simon & Garfunkel ("Bridge Over Troubled Water"), Sam Cooke and The Drifters. Live at Fillmore West and Amazing Grace were two of her most influential full-length releases, the latter a double LP of live gospel music recorded in a Los Angeles Baptist church. Surprisingly she never made it to number one in the UK pop charts — the best result being a number four with her version of Burt Bacharach's "I Say a Little Prayer" in 1968. ...more
Aretha Franklin concert tickets are available right here! These preferred Aretha Franklin ticket brokers are listed for you to compare and shop for your Aretha Franklin concert tickets. The ticket brokers below often have the hard to find Aretha Franklin concert tickets you can't find anywhere else. The ticket brokers listed below can also provide you access to most other concert tickets, NFL football, MLB baseball, NBA basketball, NHL hockey, College Basketball, College Football tickets and special event tickets within the United States. |
